Bala Sharks Dying help!!!!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

Symbiosis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2007
77
0
0
Brisbane
Hi Guys,

I've had my tank 5x2x2 established for 3 years now without a glitch... current residents in there are school of large silver sharks, flagtail prochilodus, silver dollars and clown loaches. for some reason over the past month, the silver sharks started dying one by one and its always the large ones (20cm) that die and not the small one. i can't see any visible mark to say that it was attacked as i only have peaceful residents in my tank. i feed them daily with blood worms at night and hikari pallets during the day. Init i thought it was the water quality cos the first time that some died together with a few clown loaches i did leave the water change a little too long in between but this time, the water is only 1.5 week old between change. I tested the water and has not ammonia, nitrite and about 40ppm nitrate. any ideas guys? i don't want to keep losing my silver sharks cos i quite like my large ones.

Cheers

Eric
 
Could be an illness, I would say you should be changing that water weekly without fail, not 1.5 weeks or later sometimes as you said. And you need 50percent changes with big balas. Someone else will be along to suggest what it could be. Nitrate is a touch high, but it definately shouldnt kill them at that level.
 
How much water was replaced? It is possible that your balas died from shock due to sudden environmental changes. Keeping water changes consistently on schedule should avoid this disaster. Another thing I noticed is you feed them bloodworms on daily basis. Might I suggest that you limit this to once or twice a week only. Bloodworms contain excessive proteins and this can lead to digestive upsets. Focus more on vegetable diet as balas are more on the vegetarian side rather than meat.
 
yeh the water change has been inconsistent lately with work being so busy.... but i would have thought that it would be the smaller sharks that gets affected rather than the big ones as they are tougher... i checked my ph it actually is quite acidic... it does not register on my hagen kit but on a junior kit it showed up as 6..... that is quite low isn't it...

cheers

Eric
 
Try API liquid test kit to verify the results. Check GH and KH using API as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom